The Vampire Diaries recap: Last episode 'til January!

The Vampire Diaries

type

TV Show

genre

Drama

run date

09/15/11-03/10/17

performer

Nina Dobrev, Ian Somerhalder, Paul Wesley

broadcaster

The CW

seasons

7

I’m always flattered when someone tells me that he or she (okay, always she) didn’t fully understand all that went down on a particularly twisty episode of The Vampire Diaries until reading my recap. Well, if you correct me in the comments section this week, be kind! Let’s dig in and hope for the best.

Operation Lure Klaus Back commenced with Stefan making the call to inform Klaus, who was busy making hybrids in the Portland woods, that Mikael had been daggered. We flashed back to the planning process, which I had to rewind multiple times because I was distracted by how good Stefan looked in his V-neck and how much of a waste it was to dress Damon in a crewneck. Seriously, never do that again, wardrobe department. You’re better than that. Stefan would tell Klaus that Mikael had followed Elena into the study to nab her and use her as bait to smoke Klaus out. Stefan and Damon vervained Mikael (because that’s believable) and discovered he was carrying a dagger that he planned to use on Rebekah. They drove it through his heart. Mikael jumped in at this point and said he’d play dead, because Klaus would need proof. I thought he meant, like, texting him a photo, but compelled Stefan needed to be able to honestly tell Klaus that he saw Mikael daggered with his own eyes. Since a vampire can’t stake an Original without dying, Elena would have to do the honors. Mikael had an insurance policy so she would wake him up: Only he knew where he was keeping a stake fashioned out of the ancient oak tree that would kill Klaus. Klaus ultimately asked to speak to Rebekah, and she confirmed Mikael’s run-in with a dagger as well. She told Klaus she was miserable and wanted to see him. He told her he’d be home soon. Game on!

Elena removed the stake from Mikael, and it took him awhile to come to. Rebekah, who’d clearly already done her hair (which looked great this episode), passed the time painting her toenails while resting her foot on a leather ottoman. She’s such a bad girl! This was not a happy reunion. Rebekah accused Mikael of wanting to use the dagger on her. Mikael said he was never after her; he was only after Klaus. Klaus had killed her mother and blinded her to it. Rebekah said she knew Klaus would pay for that with his life, but it was Mikael who destroyed their family when he turned them into vampires and made them killers — not Klaus.

It was time to pick out homecoming outfits. Bonnie and Elena took a moment to have a conversation that semi-explained why we wouldn’t be seeing Alaric and Jeremy this hour. Alaric would be staying home to analyze the cave drawings, and Jeremy, well, I guess he knew Caroline would want Bonnie at the dance and since they’re still not talking, the right thing for him to do would be not to show up and eat up screentime. The conversation also explained why it itself had to be brief — Bonnie didn’t want to talk to Elena about Jeremy. As his sister, Elena couldn’t be as mad at Jeremy as Bonnie was, and she shouldn’t have to be. He’ll always be in Elena’s life, so she has to forgive him. Bonnie can hold a grudge.

Elena was next seen helping Damon prep wolfsbane grenades. I’m so glad he was doing that in his bathroom. I love that set. Stefan interrupted their talk about not being able to trust Rebekah and Damon’s secret contingency plan to ask to borrow a tie. Bad Stefan has better fashion sense than Nice Stefan. He also has thicker eyebrows, right? Elena suggested that Stefan simply not go to homecoming, but he knows that Elena tends to get herself into mortal danger at school dances, so he had to go since he’s compelled to protect her. (Shouldn’t he, like Damon, have been worried about her trying to load a grenade then?) Elena worried that Stefan would blow the plan with a bad answer to a question from Klaus, but Stefan made another good point: Their epic plans usually fail because someone’s humanity gets in the way, so odds are, it won’t be him this time. At that moment, we should have guessed that it WOULD be him, but we didn’t have time to think. There was no cut to commercial. We had to get sucked into a conversation about Rebekah the evil blood slut while Tyler and Caroline redecorated the ’60s Decade Dance hippie van. (What exactly was the homecoming dance theme going to be?)